FAMILIES in Wales are being driven to desperate measures as they struggle to make ends meet, with charities warning times are only set to get tougher.

Parents are going hungry to ensure children have enough to eat, while the worst off are having to turn to foodbanks to make it through a cash crisis, charities have warned

Adrian Curtis, Foodbank regional development manager for Wales, said the charity has 18 foodbanks but is expecting to expand to 40 during the next 18 months because of demand.

Mr Curtis said foodbanks in the Valleys have seen a 50% increase in business, while demand in Cardiff has doubled.

The foodbanks provide emergency three-day supplies of food for people who are referred by charities and organisations as they have hit crisis point where benefits and other support can take several days to organise.

Mr Curtis said: “We can get people who have suddenly lost their job and have to apply for benefits.

“If that job wasn’t a well paid job, they’re not likely to have savings so have been left without money.”

One woman the charity helped had been moved to a new flat with her children to escape domestic violence.

She had been left with nothing but a double mattress to sleep on with her two children, covered with the shower curtain from the bathroom. The foodbank provided food so the family was able to eat while they waited for the benefits and other support to be organised by social services.

Erika Helps, chief executive of Rhondda Tâf Citizens Advice Bureau, said 49% of their clients last year had a household income of less than £1,000 a month.

She said inflation, benefit changes and wage freezes were making it more and more difficult for people to make ends meet, leaving them especially vulnerable to income shocks like a broken-down boiler.

“I don’t think we’re going to see any upturn for our client base for some considerable time,” warned Erika.

“It’s a fairly bleak outlook for those people who are just under the poverty line or just managing to keep things together. People who feel they’re only one crisis away from real financial difficulty.

“Savings have dwindled, I don’t think people expected things to be bleak for so long. People don’t have the money to set aside to save.”

Ms Helps said school holidays make life even more difficult for families as parents struggle to provide a hot meal for children who usually would be fed at school, often meaning parents miss out on food to ensure their children are well fed.

She encouraged people who are struggling financially to get help with budgeting and to look at insurance as a way of covering the cost of broken appliances.

Imran Hussain, spokesman for the Child Poverty Action Group, said children were missing out on the kinds of things families used to take for granted, such as having friends over for tea, a short break in the UK and even winter coats, as parents struggled to pay the bills.

He said: “Families are really being squeezed. They’re being caught between living costs rising repeatedly and income stagnating or falling and that applies to families who have people who are out of work, who’ve lost their jobs, also applies to those where they are working.”